Hello all,
In regards to the original question asked;
While I wouldn't want to definitively say one side would definitely win over rate other, I do think this would greatly swing the odds over towards the favor of the British.
KGV at this point is much more worked up than PoW (notably, not having yard workers still on the ship!), although still suffering from the issues related to the Quad turrets. Thus, I think it's safe to assume that KGV's combat efficiency would be minimally just as much as PoW if not better.
With that noted, turning our attention to the difference between
Hood and PoW at the battle I think should highlight some very important differences between the two ships.
- KGV had far greater armor than Hood - ignoring even the belt armor (which should be mostly irrelevant at such a range as this action), she did have far superior deck armor. Thus, Holland would not feel the need to press the range so rapidly to avoid he threat of plunging fire. He's got the advantage of fighting with a homogenous division of warships - at the same ranges they'll have the same resistance to the German 38cm guns. Thus the two KGV-class battleships could exposed their aft turrets much earlier and engaged with all twenty 14" guns between the two ships - far more than the ten barrels Holland brought to bare historically.
- Even if hit in a similar manner, KGV should not be vulnerable to destruction in the same manner as Hood - unlike the old pre-Jutland battlecruiser, KGV's magazines stored shells above the charges, rather than the reverse. A fatal magazine detonation from a shell hit would be far less likely.
- Hood's gunnery was far less of a threat than any other ship at the action due to her Fire Control System - she still relied on a Dreyer table that was inadequate for the type of action she ended up fighting.
To be more specific on the FCS's shortcomings, O'Hara notes in
The German Fleet at War, 1939-1945;
There was a disagreement between Lütjens and Lindemann whether Bismarck should chase down and sink Prince of Wales. The fact Lütjens let the damaged ship go accorded with his instructions and is not remarkable. The results of this famous duel are commonly explained in terms of British errors rather than German skill. Stephen Roskill, the official British historian, assembled a damning collection, most of which he laid at the feet of Vice Admiral Holland.
First, he noted that the converging approach elected by Holland was an unhappy compromise that did not close range quickly but served to reduce the fighting power of the British ships to forward turrets only. Moreover, the “diagonal approach produced just the conditions of changing rate of change of range that Hood’s old and flawed Dreyer fire control computer could not cope with.”
O’Hara, Vincent P.. The German Fleet at War, 1939-1945 (pp. 83-84). Naval Institute Press.
The combinations of these factors I think would weigh heavily in the favor of the British.
Hood's gunnery failed to accomplish anything in the battle (except for some minor splinter damage on
Eugen via an over, iirc? Or was that PoW?) before she was destroyed. This rapidly left only PoW able to contribute large-caliber fire to the action, an ability which rapidly diminished as her quad turrets went out of action, and none due to enemy action - leaving her with only two guns to respond to the German ships.
Given that;
- KGV's fire would be more effective than Hood
- KGV would be less vulnerable to rapid destruction than Hood
No matter what, the Germans are faced with a longer action, under fire the whole time. Given that despite PoW's output issues (55 of 74 shots ordered actually firing) she still hit
Bismarck just as many times as
Bismarck hit her (3 times)... I cannot see why KGV might hit less than PoW, especially if her guns fail her less. Under significant return fire German gunnery would likely not be as good as it was historically (as rangefinding and salvo observation tends to suffer when under fire), and perhaps most noteworthy at all,
Prinz Eugen is much more of a lability than before.
Although I might be wrong here, as I recall PoW pretty much fired on
Bismarck the entire time while
Eugen only took fire from
Hood before she went down... and once
Hood went down the heavy cruiser could continue the action unmolested. If the British have two 14" battleships, in the event they don't both fire on
Bismarck (although I suspect this would in fact be the case),
Eugen is getting the attention of 14" guns, with better FC than what
Hood's 15" guns had.
I'm not willing to concretely say it's a British victory, but I do think the pendulum swings heavily in favor of the British if
Hood is replaced by KGV.
, not the initial one and not the effective one. You are unable to calculate 
